(Getty)
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off Monday night in the first of three televised debates at Hofstra University.
NBC News’ Lester Holt moderated the 90-minute debate, which analysts — and betting markets — largely scored as a win for Clinton.
Read on for a recap of the debate, and vote in our poll at the bottom of the post on who you think won the debate.
Opening Statements
Clinton received the first question, which was decided by a coin flip.
The former secretary of state was asked directly why she would be a better choice than Trump. The Democratic nominee highlighted concerns over the economy and outlined her policy proposals.
“The central question in this election is really what kind of country we want to be and what kind of future we’ll build together,” she said.
Clinton added that she intend to build “good jobs,” while making the economy “fairer.” She discussed her intent to create equal pay, paid family leave, as well as pay and profit sharing.
“You have to judge us — who can shoulder the immense, awesome responsibilities of the presidency?” she said. “I hope that I will be able to earn your vote on Nov. 8.”
In Trump’s opening statement he spoke of jobs “being stolen from us,” and focused on the need to keep jobs in the United States.
He emphasized that American companies need to to be stopped from outsourcing overseas.
Trump said:
“Our jobs are fleeing the country. They’re going to Mexico, they’re going to many other countries. You look at what China is doing to our country in terms of making our product — they’re devaluing their currency, and there’s nobody in our government to fight them, and we have a very good fight, and we have a winning fight. Because they’re using our country as a piggy bank to rebuild China, and many other countries are doing the same thing.”
Job Creation & Trade Agreements
Clinton responded to Trump’s opening remarks by contrasting Trump’s experience to her own.
“Donald is very fortunate in his life, and that’s all to his benefit… he borrowed $14m from his father, he really believes the more you help wealthy people, the better off you’ll be.”
Clinton then described father’s experience as a “small business” owner, dying drapery fabrics.
“We need to have smart, fair trade deals,” she added.
Clinton said that Trump’s proposal amounts to “trickle-down economics all over again.”
“I call it Trumped up, trickle down,” she said.
Holt asked Trump how he can bring back American manufacturing.
Trump responded: “Don’t let the companies leave… ‘You say, fine… if you think you’re going to make… whatever you make and bring them into our country without a tax, you’re wrong.'”
Trump said he’d place a substantial tariff on imported goods, which he said would “stop them from leaving.”
Clinton says, “Let’s stop for a second and remember where we were eight years ago.”
She says the recession was due to “tax policies that slashed taxes on Wall Street… in fact Donald was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis…”
Trump responded by saying “That’s called business,” but he let Clinton finish her answer.
Trump attacked Clinton on her plan to improve the economy and create jobs: “You’ve been doing this for 30 years. Why are you just starting to think about this right now?”
Clinton said, “Well, actually, I have thought about this quite a bit. … I think my husband did quite a good job in the 1990s…Incomes went up for everybody… manufacturing jobs also went up in the 1990s, if we’re actually going to look at the facts.”
Trump continued to go after Clinton:
“When you haven’t done it for 30 years… your husband signed Nafta, which is one of the worst things that ever happened. You go to Ohio, you go to Pennsylvania… Nafta is one of the worst things signed anywhere…’
He accused Clinton of supporting TPP. “You called it the gold standard,” he added.
“That is just non-accurate,” Clinton responded. “Well, Donald, I know that you live in your own reality, but that was not the facts…”
Trump pressed Clinton on the issue: “Was it president Obama’s fault?”
“There are different views about our country, our economy and…”
Trump interrupted Clinton, “You have no plan. Secretary Clinton you have no plan.”
Clinton responded, “I do. I wrote a book about it. … we have a very robust set of plans.”
Raising Taxes on Wealthy Americans
Clinton said that Trump’s tax proposals would not incentivize companies to return their profits to the U.S.
“When I look at what you have proposed, you have what is called now the Trump loophole,” she said, implying that it would personally benefit him.
“As I said, Trumped-up trickle down. Trickle down did not work. It got us into the mess we were in in 2008 and 2009,” she said.
ISIS
Trump made an attack against Clinton about how to defeat the Islamic State.
“No wonder you’ve been fighting ISIS your entire adult life,” Trump said.
Clinton countered that she does have a plan to combat ISIS. Trump responded that she is broadcasting her plan on her website.
Trump’s Tax Returns & Clinton’s Emails
Holt asked Trump why he hasn’t released his tax returns. Trump said that he’s under a “routine audit” by the Internal Revenue Service.
Trump then said he would release his when Hillary Clinton releases 30,000 personal emails deleted from her private email server.
“I made a mistake using a private email,” Clinton said.
“That’s for sure,” Trump responded.
Race Relations
The debate turned to race relations in the United States.
“Race remains a significant challenge in our country. Unfortunately race still determines too much,” Mrs. Clinton said.
She cited the shootings of black men by police in Tulsa and Charlotte. She outlined her plans for better training for law enforcement, and a criminal justice reform bill. She also called for stronger background checks to limit firearms access to people who “shouldn’t have them.”
Clinton said, “We’ve got too many military-style weapons on the streets. In a lot of places, our police are outgunned…we need to keep guns out of the hands of those who’d do harm…
“There are things we can do and we ought to do it in a bipartisan way.”
Holt followed up by asking Clinton: “Are you saying that police have an implicit bias against black men?”
She responded, “I think the implicit bias is a problem for everyone, not just police… too many of us in our great country jump to conclusions about each other.”
Trump said the violence in cities like Chicago can be solved with more “law and order.”
“We need law and order in our country,” Trump said.
Trump said police officers should remove firearms from people who should not have them.
“We have to take these guns away from people who shouldn’t have them, who are bad people,” Trump said.
Trump supported the idea of banning people on the FBI’s terrorist watch list from purchasing firearms.
Trump commended the highly criticized stop-and-frisk policy.
“We have a situation where we have inner cities, African-Americans, Hispanics are living in hell because it’s so dangerous,” Trump said.
Clinton said it is “really unfortunate that he paints such a dire, negative picture of black communities in our country.”
She added that stop-and-frisk was “demonstrated to not work.”
Birtherism
Holt asked Trump to explain why he kept pressing questions about President Obama’s birth place, even after the president produced his birth certificate proving he was born in Hawaii.
Trump cited the news organization McClatchy and claimed credit for getting Obama to release his birth certificate.
“I was the one who got him to produce the birth certificate and I think I did a good job,” he said.
Holt asked Trump what he has to say to African Americans on the issue.
“I say nothing,” he said, reiterating he’s developed strong relations with the community.
Clinton responded by saying that Trump’s campaign was founded “on a racist lie.”
She went on to reference a 1973 Justice Department lawsuit brought against Trump for housing discrimination. “He has a long record of engaging in racist behavior,” she said.
Foreign Policy
Clinton said Trump has been “very praiseworthy” of Russian President Vladimir Putin and said things to undermine America’s national security. “That’s why I was so shocked when Donald publicly invited Putin to hack into Americans,” she said.
Trump responded by citing endorsements from admirals and the agency that represents border patrol agents.
Trump raised questions over the suggestion that Russia was behind a hack of Democratic National Committee emails.
“We don’t know” who was behind the hack,” Trump said. Maybe it was China, maybe it was a “400-pound” hacker.
Clinton outlined her plan to defeat ISIS, including to prevent online recruiting, supporting airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.
Clinton went on to say that Trump supported the invasion of Iraq. However, the Republican nominee interjected: “wrong, wrong.”
Will You Accept a Loss in November?
The final question was whether the candidates will accept a loss in the election.
“I support our democracy. And times you win, sometimes you lose. But I certainly will support the outcome of this election,” Clinton said.
Trump said he will accept the outcome of the general election if Clinton defeats him.
“If she wins, I will absolutely support her,” Trump said.
Prediction Markets Score it a Win for Clinton
Clinton’s odds of winning the election at Predictwise, which aggregates data from betting markets, moved from 69 percent before the debate to 73 percent in the hour after it ended.
During the debate Trump’s betting odds plunged from 39 to 31 percent, according to PredictIt.
Pollster and political analyst Frank Luntz shared the results from his focus group on Twitter. Luntz posted that 16 people said Clinton won, while only six people said Trump won.
Reader Poll
Vote in the poll below on who you think won the debate.
Who Won the Debate? Betting Markets Say Clinton
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump faced off Monday night in the first of three debates they will hold before Election Day. Here is a look at how the betting markets shifted following the debate.
Click here to read more
is a contributor to Heavy covering news, sports and entertainment. Olivia is a multi-faceted reporter who has worked with a variety of media outlets including Fox Sports, Tampa Media Group and PBS. Follow her on Twitter @Olivia_Stacey. Olivia can be reached at olivia.stacey@heavy.com.
September 27, 2016 12:18 pm
Trump won…sealed it with the TPP Gold Standard – Hillary is job killer and always has been. A Marxist ideologue should never be in a leadership position in the USA, unfortunately that’s who has been leading this nation for several years – it must stop, we can’t survive another 4 years of Marxism. I thought Hillary was going down a couple of times….did you see her? She really was unstable a few times, but a couple of times, I said to my wife…she’s going down, as in pass out right there at the podium.
As Trump said childishly so many times, “Wrong.”
53,000 to 18,000 say you are wrong. Take a look at any poll. Not the ones they say exist, go look at one yourself.
Oh yes, how DARE he tell the TRUTH about your LYIN BENGHAZI CROOKILARY by calling her LIES what they are LIES!!!!!! Holt was too busy trying to make the Old Lib Socialist Hag Witch, look good and covering for her!
by that do you mean correcting trump when he lied and changed things around like when he said she doesn’t look like a president, He tried to say he said stamina. lol If you want to vote for someone who’s temperament is so good he’ll start a war with Iran because their sailors gave ours the finger, In the mental health profession we call that clinically significant.
Yes, he should have taken the high road like Hillary and started name calling. Oh wait, Hillary did that in the final minutes. Very mature!
ou are correct John New. I’ve been around a year longer than Crooked Hillary and have been present for ALL of her lying days. She is the snake in Trumps ‘snake poem’!!
I know what I talking about!! I know her history!!
You really just called Hillary Clinton the centrist a Marxist when Trump’s entire economic policy revolves around counteracting capitalism with protectionism?
NAFTA AD $1 an hour CLINTON Goldman Sachs. Mexican Government took out a $1 an hour ad to get U.S. companys to move to Mexico to see AD go to ( public Integrity the trading game ) download page 110,111,23,24 see how many friends of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s got rich off the Mexican Government. Why didn’t CNN ask about the NAFTA AD is it because Time Warner owns CNN and Time Warner gave money to Hillary Clinton’s.
Because all, except FOX, are in the tank for barry/CrooKilary, including the,,,,, Republican.. Holt,,,lol yea right!!! They will protect these DEMORATS and DEMOCROOKS every time!!
You need to do more than stand on a stage and look Presidential, going to Mexico posing and sending TWEETS denying everything does not make you a President. Making garbage products in Russia and paying no taxes while bankrupting small business does not make you a businessman. Trump and his race baiting practices are what is wrong with this place.
Trump won. He was able to navigate thru the double teaming of Clinton and Holt and score on Hillary, something Bill is unable to do anymore……hopefully next time we’ll see the questions of Benghazi, the Clinton Foundation, her phones and missing emails posed to her……
Amen brother Trump is fighting both parties as the entire MSM! And looser Obama ….
Trump won. She Never answered why her staff pleaded the 5th. That did it for me.
Hillary won, Trump got on stage like a 9th grader thinking he can ad lib the debate and ad lib the presidency meanwhile he just choked and through a fit, my guess is because Hillary came prepared and he was made out to be the lying crooked fool he naturally is.
So you don’t care anything about CrooKilary taking MILLIONS from OUR ENEMIES, being responsible for putting Politics above the lives of FOUR OF OUR HEROES who were Murdered and Tortured, being responsible for the barry/CrooKilary Depression we are in, because of their SICK Socialist/Communist Crap policies!!?? None of that matters to you??!!!
Relax there Grumps. Her foundation has saved lives while his has financed self portraits.
You’re seriously still stuck on Benghazi?? Your pals in Congress spent three years of our tax money trying to bring her down, and found NOTHING. They gave up. Isn’t it time you do the same?
Depression? Unemployment is under 5%, we’ve recovered all our pre-recession jobs, and incomes are rising. What the hell are you talking about? Yes blue collar workers have suffered, but that’s because of foreign cheap labor and automation. Go live in Cuba for a while then you can talk about communism. In the meantime capitalism here is thriving. Oh and you do realize Trumps tariffs are anti-free market capitalism right? Get your facts straight.
CZ= The Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars in bribes for favors from Hillary’s State Department. This is BRIBERY on a grand scale. “Saved lives???” Ask anyone in Haiti if Bill Clinton saved lives. Clinton’s friends got lucrative contracts — paid by the US Government, and then FAILED TO PERFORM. HAITI IS STILL IN RUBBLE A DECADE AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE. Hillary claims she was sleeping while four Americans died. She, or someone in the White House GAVE THE ORDER TO OUR TROOPS IN TRIPOLI TO STAND DOWN! There is no limit to the lies and corruption of this Democratic administration. The “recovery” you proclaim produced a 1.2% GDP increase last year — the slowest growth rate since World War II. Government unemployment figures are LIES. We all know that; why don’t you? Obama brags that Hillary flew a million million miles all over the world, while Secretary of State, yet the Middle East is in flames and immigration from Syria causes trouble for Europe and the U.S. So what did she really accomplish, and how is she qualified to be POTUS?
I couldn’t say it any better! What a disgrace Hilary Rotten Cliton is she has NO POLICY all she has is putting Trump down, it’s why she is in tha garbage again with these porn star, I real hate this women and Obama ! ….
Um, she had the script delivered last week. She was never searching for an answer. Are you actually impressed?
The burden of the debate fell on hilliary. she is the insider and 30 year politician. the issue here was does hilliary`s experience overshadow trumps business exprience? She never made that point. she got owned on her email scandle and failed to address it in a reasonable explanation of why 2600 work related emails were deleted and 13 mobil devices destroyed after they were under federal subpoena. Trump also owned her on her support of nafta and her flip flop on the latest trade agreement only after he brought up how bad it was for the u.s.. trump got owned on the birther issue he failed to explain his belief in it. and hilliary almost got him on his taxes but trump turned it back on her email scandle so it was a wash. trump got hit on his statement on the iraq war but recovered well clarifying what he actually said ” i dont know i guess ” on the stern show, and further pointing out there were many people including hannity that would testify he had went completly against it before the first shot was fired.over all. hilliary came off as condescending and dishonest on the email scandle and trump came off as a bit of a hot head. no real surprises here. I dont believe the debate will change anyone’s minds that have chosen sides. though i do feel trump may get a slight bump out of undecided and independent voters. but it will be marginal. considering the questions were pointed against trump and the public will see that. asking trump about his taxes but not hilliary on her corruption issues. I believe in the end this will help trump. i would guess a 2 point bump to trump in polls.And i score it 60% trump 40% clinton
I look forward to the next debate, when Trump trounces Hillary with her life failures and exposes her as an enemy of the state. Hillary acted like a rotten teenage girl whenever she got called out for the disgusting things she’s done in her useless life.
Oh how right you are! I’m going to enjoy Hilary Rotten Lying murder Clinton get cremated ! He’s already in study mode, trump need to see what he was up against , much different then primaries! Now he know so here we go! Seat belts tightened????
sorry to break your fantasy media bubble, but ol polls clearly say dt won. or at least the one at this very page. anyhow, didn’t want to repeat myself, so here’s a link a prev remark…
heavy.com/news/2016/09/who-won-the-debate-betting-markets-say-clinton/comment-page-1/#comment-2345639
He challenged her “I’ll release my taxes, the minute she releases her 30,000 e-mails!” Let’s do it! Americans deserve to hear the truth!
American’s deserve that Trump pays taxes just like the rest of us. Since he makes “bigly” money let him pay “bigly taxes.
He’s not saying ‘bigly’, Jean…. He’s saying ‘big league’!! Get it right!!
The moderator warned those attending the debate when they cheered for Trump but said nothing when they cheered for hillery. Lets be fair!
Trump passed up a lot of opportunities. For example, why did he allow her to get away with blaming republican policies for the recession? It was the democrats who relaxed lending standards that collapsed the housing market. And he should have hammered her on her record and dishonesty. I hope he does in future debates.
He’ll get her on those. Trump knows what he’s doing. Everyone remembers the last debate, not the first. He’s gonna come down hard on her on the third one, I’m calling it.
Clinton won, clearly. When Trump wasn’t being condescending ,he was being a bully and an outright liar. He was repetitive and never really did answer the questions presented to him.
AS A NON-POLITICIAN TRUMP DID PRETTY GOOD, BUT AS EFFICIENT AS HE THE MAN WAS, HE DIDN’T GET A CHANCE IN OUTLINING BENGHAZI, deleted Emails, selling US Uranium deposits to Russia, leaving the White house broke & now worth over $150 million dollars and a husband who had sexual relations with underage girls. That’s just to start with..?
Wow, so trump won on every real issue, economy, security, race relations (which aint saying much on this topic). Hillary looked ok while attacking trump about things that don’t matter, birthirism? This was a thing last night? Like there are no real issues? Like protecting information vital to national security, or maybe not turning america into europe, which is a mess. She also got him on him not paying taxes because when we normal people pay our taxes we like to make sure we let the government take every dollar they can. Trump pointed out her record and laid out hus plan on things that matter, while hillary told the enemy what to expect if she wins. So im sure thatll work, usually countries win wars when the enemy is told what to expect and when to expect it.
Are u f…..ing diff are u guy diff an to the true u are just like trump u can’t admit when u wrong an when u lose an stop being so dame one sided bcz u like trump an u supporting a man who call him self genius for not paying tax
This year you can vote between a clown and a cartoon character. Is this the best our elite has to offer? Two kids slinging insults on the playground. And Hilary should pay Holt. He shouldn’t have to take care of her for free. Hypocrites Hilary says “Stop and Frisk is Unconstitutional,” then says she would ban guns from those on no fly lists composed by the government, equally unconstitutional. OK, I’m calm again.
Michelle Obama has a purple Asshole!
Clinton won, though the deluded say he won. First of all, everyone left of crazy now realize how imperative it is to get out and vote against the wacko man. Those who were fence sitting have more reason to vote for Hillary. Best of all, Trump knows how badly he did. That’s why he’s in hysterics today.
the markets speak for themselves, Trump is an idiot!
At least Trump got richer before entered politics. Hilary has made millions, and all because she is a “Public Servant.”
Donald was far more presidential than Hillary. Donald could have brought up Monica Lewinski, but considered Chelsea in the audience. Donald had to put up with the disgusting MSM Liberal bias of NBC News in the person of Lester Holt, who joined Hillary’s errors about “stop & frisk,” while criticizing Donald. Holt was trying to be a third contestant in the debate, reinforcing Hillary’s attacks on the “Birther” non-issue, while failing to ask important questions about immigration that Hillary didn’t want to discuss — A FAILED, BIASED MODERATION.
Wow, your photo of Hillary says it all. That’s not even what she wore to the debate.
This is Trump Fantasy Land” a bunch of crazies.
You in the Media can try to push Clinton but the PEOPEL want DONALD J. TRUMP !!! Accept it !!!!
yes!! All 4 of you
4 of us (2 of us are Deplorables)? Look at the scoreboard, check the polls.
NAFTA AD $1 an hour CLINTON Goldman Sachs. Mexican Government took out a $1 an hour to get U.S. companies to move to Mexico. Download to see AD go to page 110,111,23,24 see how many friends of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s got rich off the Mexican Government. http://cloudfront-files-1.publicintegrity.org/legacy_projects/pdf_reports/THETRADINGGAME.pdf
Are u people f… mad trump win wat oh yea he win most talkin with shiting how could u people supported a man who think he don’t do it say nothing wrong an that he all rite in wat he his saying when he caught on speaking with getting the fact he don’t apologise an admitted that wat he say wrong he just sweet it under the business. An the u calling Hillary names a lease when she make a mistake she can admitted when she wrong an she apologise for it are u people crazy not 2 choose her
The media and Hilary can’t stop telling lies. Now they want us to believe she won the first debate even though she lost every online poll on the planet except CNN. (Clinton News Network) As the polls without bias prove she lost, where human interference is possible she wins but the lies just can’t hold up to the truth. The Trump train rolled right over her. Choo, Choo.
71% Trump Train, 25% Hilary strange freak show. Online polls don’t lie CNN and Hilary do.
What a hoax or rip off this site is. I voted and had much difficulty changing what was already pre checked for me. When I finally was able to get it changed. I noticed it changed back just as I pushed the button. Sounds about right for the trumps crowd. I don’t trust the up coming election results as this bunch has figured out how to come up with what they want.
do we with any common sense at all really think that someone who has been in government for 26 years believe she don’t understand anything about secret e-mail and how to use her i phones? how stupid could you be>>??? she knew exactly what she was doing and will tell our enemies exactly when and where we are going to strike them aand send no help as shr did in Benghazi? I would not even let her be in charge of the cash register at a dollar general
Counted cheated. Trump won.
Clinted. Cheated. Trump won
Trump won even on a rigged debate!